This is the true love story of Lucia and Henry, "welded" together from the time of their marriage in the early days of World War I until Lucia's death in the land of freedom. But it is a lot more; it is a book of man's cruelty to man. It is a story of survival in World War I in countries where borders moved, of coping with changing times and rules and regulations against the Jews. It is a story of the suffering not only during WWII at the hands of the Nazis but also of the persecution of the Jews for many years leading up to the Holocaust by the peoples of Eastern Europe. Until one reads this love story it would be hard to fathom the depths of those societies and what people would do to their neighbors. It is a story written by Henry after he suffered two strokes and in a language he learned by reading newspapers and a dictionary when he was in his late sixties It was in a land that finally gave him freedom from fear.